The 2014-15 Houston Rockets were a feel-good story, shaking off major injuries and muted preseason forecasts to become the Western Conference’s second-best team. The 2015-16 Rockets, on the other hand, shouldn’t come as such a surprise. Following the bold offseason trade for former Denver point guard Ty Lawson, the story in Houston is back to being about what is, rather than what might be. In other words, GM Daryl Morey is finally “all-in” on his roster. While Lawson fills the obvious need of
Boston guard Isaiah Thomas is a relatively-tiny 5-foot-9, while Houston small forward Trevor Ariza is 6-foot-8 and one of the league’s premier defenders. So if Ariza were to take the ball hard to the rim, you wouldn’t expect Thomas to reject him. But that’s exactly what happened in a recent Seattle Pro-Am game: Ariza, to his credit, had an appropriate emoji response about the incident when asked on Twitter: ???????? https://t.co/M9W9TND8Zr — trevorariza (@TrevorAriza) August 29, 2015 Thomas, a Pacific Northwest native, didn’t directly comment on
LaMarcus Aldridge will kick off a whirlwind week of free agency by meeting with both the Lakers and Rockets on Tuesday night in Los Angeles, according to reports. Free agency begins at 9:01 p.m. Pacific time (12:01 a.m. Eastern), and Aldridge won’t waste much time. After meeting with the Lakers and Rockets on Tuesday, he’ll proceed to visit with the Spurs, Mavs, Suns and Raptors on Wednesday and finally with the Knicks on Thursday, reports Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.com. That list doesn’t even
Stephen Curry has a legitimate chance to go down as the greatest shooter in NBA playoff history. With just two days before the Golden State-Cleveland NBA Finals finally begins, an appreciation of Curry’s shooting stroke — and the changing landscape of how offenses emphasize the three — point to Curry having a chance to at least be part of an elite playoff performance list. The 27-year-old MVP ideally will be playing in many more postseasons over the course of his career and should be
This is where DFS handicapping gets really interesting. It was easy enough to target Stephen Curry $10400 and James Harden $9500 last night as the Warriors edged the very stubborn Rockets, but not many touts or analysts expected Shaun Livingston $2600 (18 PTS, 7 REB, 3 AST) to be such a factor. He was on the Short List here and I hope you plugged him into your Tu-We lineups. [Read more…]
It’s time we start appreciating these Houston Rockets for what they are instead of wondering what could be down the road. For much of the 2014-15 season, the narrative about Houston for many around the NBA — myself included — has been more about the future than the present. Sure, today looked nice with James Harden and Dwight Howard, but general manager Daryl Morey seemed so close to forming a “Super Team” last summer with Chris Bosh and again at the trade deadline with Goran
The top seeds in each conference won at home last night in very different fashion. The Hawks needed a late offensive rebound from Al Horford to edge the Wizards 82-81, while the Warriors cruised to a 20-point victory. [Read more…]
There are no NBA games tonight, but tomorrow’s big-money contests are now open for entries at DraftKings. Friday night features Game Three in the two series we just watched on Monday and Wednesday. [Read more…]